Toronto's new GM Anthopoulos is full of hope and enthusiam. Dare we get excited?

Two hours into the conversation and Alex Anthopoulos has barely taken a breath. He is that excited, that engaging, that much the chatterbox, that wide-eyed, that ready to take on the world and Blue Jays baseball -- whichever comes first.

It is five days into his reign as general manager and his mind is racing -- along with his words -- trying to explain who he is, what he wants to do, and how all this has happened so quickly to a kid from Mount Royal who not that long ago couldn't afford to pay rent in Toronto.

"This city can be unbelievable," said Anthopoulos, knowing that right now it isn't, fully aware that the Blue Jays have some reconnecting to do. "Is it easy? Absolutely not. Are there incredible challenges? Absolutely.

"Everybody talks about the Yankees and the Red Sox and how they're not going away and that the Orioles are getting better and Tampa Bay is incredibly well run. Well all that said, we can't focus on 'we can't, we can't.' We need to get that thinking out of our mind set. We need to get rid of that sense of apathy.

"If (it's impossible to win) don't take the job, don't come to work every day. If that's the case, we don't have a chance. That's a terrible attitude.

"We have to stop with the 'we can't' and start thinking about how we can. We may have to be more creative than anybody else. We may have to take more risks than anybody else. We probably have more challenges than anybody else. That's our reality and we're going to try and get the job done."

It all sounds so promising on Day 5, before his contracts run out, before free agency hits, before anything of consequence has to be done. It all sounds so promising and so anti-Ricciardi that you want to believe every word and you want to run alongside him, just hoping to capture that youthful exuberance. "Is that a message you want to pass on to your players?" I ask, and here is where some debate begins.

"I think the manager does that," said Anthopoulos, talking about Cito Gaston. "I think we have to deliver that message to the fans. I know it's a challenge and it's a daunting one. I know it's a very, very difficult task but to sit here and lament is not going to get us anywhere."

The hiring of Anthopoulos was hardly done in a conventional way. He didn't interview for the job. He didn't apply for the position. He didn't have to present any blueprint for the future. In fact, when he was asked to visit (interim CEO) Paul Beeston in his hotel room in Baltimore on Saturday, he thought he would be told about the firing of his friend, J.P. Ricciardi, and that would be it.

"I figured everything would be status quo," he said. "But when I walked in, they informed me that J.P. was let go and they'd like me to take the job.

'FLATTERED'

"I said I was flattered and appreciated it and I said I didn't need the title. The title didn't matter to me. I didn't know what their time frame was for hiring somebody.

"But Paul said: 'No, you are the general manager of the team and you have the authority to implement the things you want to do.' "

It was then that it hit him. This wasn't interim. This was it. A hiring somewhat out of order. There is no president or CEO but there is a general manager. And there already was a manager, Beeston's buddy Gaston. And what if he didn't want Gaston to be the manager?

"I have no idea," Anthopoulos said. "That's something you'd have to ask them."

This is where some doubt is tossed in the direction of the Blue Jays. Anthopoulos wants energy and excitement. He loves the way the Anaheim Angels and the Minnesota Twins play the game. "I love the fundamentals. I love the way they base-run. Those are things I really value."

And still, he wants Gaston to manage?

"Cito has been there, he's won, he knows the staff, he knows the players, he's done a lot of good things here," said Anthopoulos, well aware of the late-season mutiny of sorts when the whining second division millionaires turned on their skipper.

"Look, before he came here last year, we never had 10-game winning streaks. We were never able to put streaks like that together. The team really responded to him when things went well.

"And when we didn't perform the way we hoped, things changed. That happens with teams. Part of it is the talent we have on the club. I don't think our record is a reflection of the manager. We need to get better, we need more talent."

And Anthopoulos is itching to get going, hoping to re-sign shortstop Marco Scutaro, wanting to sit down and speak to Roy Halladay before the World Series is over, preparing to add a senior adviser or two to his staff, and with one grand plan.

"People always say the goal is to win a championship," Anthopoulos said. "But really, if you want to talk about a large, goal, I'd like to have this organization be one of the model franchises in sport."

It was that model once upon a time. Way back then, Alex Anthopoulos was just beginning high school.